- UCSF chemical biologist Kevan Shokat received the $1 million Stephenson Global Prize from the American Association for Cancer Research on Sept. 26, 2026.
- In 2013 his team found a hidden pocket in the KRAS protein, a cancer driver long considered “undruggable,” and the first drug candidate to directly block a mutated form of it.
- UCSF says more than 60 drugs targeting the RAS gene family are now in development, including daraxonrasib, approved by the FDA for pancreatic cancer in August 2026.
A San Francisco scientist whose 2013 discovery opened up a cancer target once thought impossible to drug has won a $1 million prize, after the work helped lead to a pancreatic cancer drug that doubled survival in a trial.
KRAS is mutated in almost 90% of pancreatic cancers, and for about three decades researchers had struggled to find any way to block it with a drug.
Kevan Shokat, a professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF, found a pocket in the KRAS protein that earlier researchers had missed. His team showed a drug could sit in it and lock a mutated form of the protein, KRAS G12C, in the “off” position.
That 2013 discovery opened the door. The first KRAS inhibitor was approved for lung cancer in 2021, and UCSF says more than 60 drugs aimed at the RAS gene family are now in development.
One of them is daraxonrasib, approved by the FDA in August 2026 for pancreatic cancer. In Phase III results announced in May, it doubled survival for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, from six months to 13 months.
Shokat received the $1 million Stephenson Global Prize from the American Association for Cancer Research at its meeting in San Diego on Sept. 26.
“It took real courage to tackle a problem that so many scientists had given up on,” said Jim Wells, PhD.
UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood called it “a beautiful example of someone persevering on a seemingly intractable problem.”
